Sweet Success with OTS, On The Spot Queen Rearing

May 28, 2015- On The Spot (OTS) queen rearing is incredible!  Check out OTS Queen Rearing by Mel Disselkoen.  I was supposed to check the hives on May 29 for new laying queens in all my splits.  However, the weather was perfect May 28 and I couldn't wait one day longer.  I am pleased to say that each split had a laying queen, 2 of the splits already had some capped brood. The splits that stayed on the original site had almost all the frames drawn out and I had to place 2nd hive bodies on these! 
The artificial swarms with OTS queens from last year had packed out their hive body, had drawn out all the frames  of foundation and had multiple frames of capped brood.  I needed to place a second deep hive body on them also.  Because the artificial swarms were so strong, I shook some bees from those hives into a couple of my weaker starts ( starts where the queen had just started laying because I saw only eggs), to help them build up quicker.
I still have two starts to check next week on June 3. That hive had been notched 5 days later than the other hives.  If those two starts also have laying queens, that puts me at eleven hives going into summer, Yippee!  All of these from three overwintered hives, that had OTS queens started from just one hive one year ago.
That is more than 100% success!

I plan on moving most of my splits to a friend's twenty acres.  After the summer solstice, I will have to dispatch the queens and then decide if I want to continue to make more splits or have them focus on honey or a little of both.  That is the fun part of it, having so many options of which way to guide your bees.  Needless to say, either way I needed more bottom boards, top covers, hive bodies and frames etc.....  To save some cash, I bought unassembled frames and along with my husband put together 250 frames in the last 2 days!  A fellow beekeeper had made a jig that he let me borrow, it saved a ton of time as we could make ten at once and with the nail gun it went very quickly.

I also decided to try and catch some free bees.  I have two swarm boxes up, but no permanent residents yet. I have seen bees coming to check it out, maybe scouts, maybe just curious  bees. I put up a couple pictures below of the swarm boxes. I tried to stick to what Honeybees like and don't like based on the book, Honeybee Democracy by Tom Seeley. It is a very interesting read all about swarms.

Some of the hives on a "bee happy" kind of day

Some of the 250 frames we put together on this rainy May day.  The ones on the left don't have foundation yet. I use the black because it is easier to see the eggs and larva on and is recommended in Mel Disselkoen's book, OTS Queen Rearing.

Swarm box about 8 feet up on neighbor's fence post.  Inside are 2 frames of older brood comb and 3 frames foundation.  I also placed lemon grass essential oil on a paper towel and put it in a baggie with small opening. 

A few visitors to the box.  If they were scouts, the honeybees did not vote for my box.

My other swarm box approximately 10 feet up at a friends house a few miles away from me.

May 9 Full Circle

It was a year ago, May 9, that I brought my first hive of bees home. I went into the fall with three hives and came out this spring with three. 100% overwintering success! This week I went back into the hives after notching frames last week and found queen cells. Those two hives were each split into 4 hives including the artificial swarm.  I currently have 3 hives with queens and 7 hives waiting to be checked at the end of May for new laying queens.  I have one more hive to split this week because it was notched later than the other two.

 2 Artificial swarms and 5 splits with queen cells

The 3 original hives. The tallest one in picture still needs to be split this week. The other 2 are splits with queen cells, queens should be emerging today.  Will check all the splits end of May for new laying On The Spot queens.

Honeybee on Grape Hyacinth in my yard.

May 2 Dandelion Time and Splitting

I can't believe I have come full circle with my honeybees and  am now launching into my second year of beekeeping. This week the temperatures were over 60 degrees F. and it was sunny, decent weather to make my artificial swarms  and notch my brood frames per Mel Disselkoen's On The Spot (OTS) method.  His method can be found on the web  @ www.mdasplitter.com  and in his book, OTS Queen Rearing, A Survival Guide For Beekeepers Worldwide.            .
Two of my hives had over eight frames of brood.  They were strong enough to remove the queen with 2 frames of brood to make an artificial swarm and do the notching on the brood frames left at original hive. I was able to notch at least 4 frames in each and will now check back in a week for queen cells.  I will then be able to make splits using a frame with a queen cell on it and at least one other frame of brood.  In doing this I have prevented my hive from swarming and am able to make successful splits with strong healthy queens from my own backyard!
The other hive will have to build up a couple more frames of brood before I am able to remove that queen and notch the frames.
Dandelions  are blooming and many trees are popping also.  Great sources of nectar and pollen for the bees.

Honeybee on Dandelion



Check out all the pollen on her body, coming in for a landing on Dandelion bloom

Almost a full load, time to head back to the hive.